Electoral College

Electoral College The process to elect the President of the United States

Introduction • Electoral College 101 • http://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000001821730/electoral-college-101.html?smid=pl-share

Reasons that the Founding Founders created the Electoral College process: • If Congress chose the President, it would violate the principle of separation of powers • (It would give too much power to the Legislative Branch-Congress) • The also feared that citizens could not make a wise choice (they would know little about potential leaders) using a direct popular vote • Thus…

The founding fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens.

The number of “electors” within the Electoral College is based on: • The number of seats in the House of Representatives (435) • The number of Senators (100) • District of Columbia (3) *23rd Amendment passed in 1961 gave 3 electoral votes to D.C. • Total of 538

The number of “electors” a state receives is based on the number of seats that that state holds in the Senate and House of representatives (The number of seats that is apportioned to the individual states is determined by the U.S. Census, taken every ten years) • Example…

State of Georgia has 2 senators in the Senate and 14 seats in the House of Representatives • Thus 16: electoral votes • State of California has 2 senators in the Senate and 53 seats in the House of Representatives • Thus 55: electoral votes

Who are the “Electors” and how are they selected: • “Electors” except for a few provisions, just about anyone may become an “Elector” • The political parties (i.e. Republicans and Democrats or any other 3rd party) select their electors • These “Electors” promised to vote for their party’s candidate if their candidates wins the majority of their states by popular vote • So…

So… what we have are two sets of electors in each state (Republican and Democrat, plus a set for any other third parties). • Example: Georgia- 16 Republican electors; 16 Democratic electors; and any third party(s) 16 electors

Winner takes-all and proportional voting: • The presidential election is held every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. • You help choose your state’s electors when you vote for President because when you vote for your candidate you are actually voting for your candidate’s electors.

The District of Columbia and 48 states have a winner-takes-all rule for the Electoral College. In these states, whichever candidate receives a majority of the popular vote, or a plurality of the popular vote (less than 50 percent but more than any other candidate), takes all of the state’s Electoral votes. • In other words… only the candidate that received the majority or plurality of the popular vote gets his“Electors” to vote in the December Electoral College vote for President

In states that have proportional voting (Nebraska and Maine)- • In these states, there could be a split of Electoral votes among candidates through the state’s system for proportional allocation of votes (meaning the allotted electoral votes could be awarded to more than one candidate)

How does a candidate win the Presidential election? • A candidate will win the election when he/she receives a majority (at least 270) of the 538 electoral votes.

The Meeting of the Electors in December: • On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December after the presidential election, the meeting of the electors takes place. • The electors meet in their respective states, where they cast their votes for President and Vice President on separate ballots (each elector casts one vote for President and one vote for Vice President).

Your state’s electors’ votes are recorded on a “Certificate of Vote,” which is prepared at the meeting by the electors. Your state’s Certificates of Votes are sent to the Congress and the National Archives as part of the official records of the presidential election. • Each state’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on the 6th of January in the year following the meeting of the electors. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House chamber to conduct the official tally of electoral votes.

Responsibilities of Congress in the Presidential Election: • Each state’s electoral votes are counted in a joint session of Congress on January 6 in the year following the meeting of the electors. Members of the House and Senate meet in the House chamber to conduct the official tally of electoral votes. • The Vice President, as President of the Senate, presides over the count and announces the results of the vote. The President of the Senate then declares which persons, if any, have been elected President and Vice President of the United States.

If no one candidate wins a majority of the electoral votes (270): • If no candidate receives a majority of Electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President from the 3 Presidential candidates who received the most Electoral votes. Each state delegation has one vote. • The Senate would elect the Vice President from the 2 Vice Presidential candidates with the most Electoral votes. Each Senator would cast one vote for Vice President. If the House of Representatives fail to elect a President by Inauguration Day, the Vice-President Elect serves as acting President until the deadlock is resolved in the House.

Electoral College